The board hopes to give students a chance to catch up on work and meet standards.
FARMINGTON – SAD 9’s board unanimously endorsed a summer program Tuesday night that would provide students falling behind individualized tutorial attention to hopefully meet standards.
This summer, the district will pilot a six-week extended year program for students in grades three through 12 who are failing to meet grade level standards.
The purpose of the program, explained Assistant Superintendent Susan Pratt, is to allow students who could not learn their grade’s curriculum in the 175 regular school days.
“Not all of us learn at the same rate or the same time,” she explained.
Students would be referred to the program by their teachers, but parents could not refer students, Pratt stressed.
Teachers would first call parents and let them know about the program and then send a letter home outlining why the child has been recommended for the extended session, and outline the individualized objectives that student would work on during the session. The program would not be mandatory.
Unlike the traditional summer school, students would get a personalized learning plan designed to help meet the goals. There would be an assessment for each goal, and upon passing of that assessment, the student could move on. Teachers would be more like tutors.
“It’s going to look different for every child,” Pratt said. “It’s a very personalized learning plan.”
The four-day-a-week program runs from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. June 21 through July 29, for a total of 23 days.
While some students would be scheduled to attend everyday, other students may come less, according to Pratt. Sites include the Academy Hill School in Wilton, the Cape Cod Hill School in Sharon and the Cascade Brook School, Mount Blue Middle School and Mount Blue High School, all in Farmington.
For students in grades three through eight, the tutorial would be free, including transportation. Pratt has proposed that students in grades nine to 12 pay $100 for the program, including transportation but that members of the class of 2007, the first to be required to earn a standards-based diploma be eligible for a 50 percent reimbursement.
The district has $166,000 for the extended session for the summer of 2004.
Traditionally, between 10 and 15 percent of students don’t meet standards, she said, which means anywhere from 200 to 300 students from SAD 9 would be eligible.
Several board members expressed concern over high school students having to pay, including Susan Roberts, who pointed out that some parents just couldn’t afford it.
Special arrangements could be made, said Superintendent Michael Cormier, but some of the students would be recommended for the program because they didn’t work hard during the school year. The taxpayers should not have to pay to educate those children twice if they did not make the effort, he suggested.
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